Jaguar Posted June 15, 2003 Posted June 15, 2003 It seems to me that due to the sheer number of posts that are received on any given day that the majority of the more technically challenging posts go unanswered. Those that are answered are usually those posts that people can provide a quick response to. These unaswered post seem to be receiving a large number of views but no responses. Is this a problem with the post, the forum or the members ? In addition it seems that that are a very large number of posts that deal with some of the same basic issues very other hour on any given day.. -- OSC isnt installing -- Search engine placment -- Does this mod exist -- I'm stuck -- Help -- General B.S. As a result some of the questions posted that are more complex ( ie take some thought) never go answered or get maybe only one post that may of may not anwser the question forever to be lost in the pervious hundreds of pages of posts. How many of us ever read unanswered posts on Pages 2 or 3 ? Has the technical level of the forum degraded to simply answering questions that we can supply a one line respone to? or is their a need to address the some of the problems that the growth of this forum is causing? A number of very active users on this board have made public comments about how the boards have degraded in value to the more expericed users. How do we reverse this perception? My fear is that a large percentage of the first/second time users who have posted and have never gotten a single valid reponse go away never to return to OSC again. They go to a lesser product because the forums on those products dont turn over as quickly because the products dont have the same level of development support however they are getting support for the product. ( I know this to be true personally) How many of us based our choice of OSC on the level of perceived advanced support? How much of that support really exists now? What I would like to see is a greater segmentation of this forum into different levels of functionality. A section for the quick and dirty responses and a section where more serious thought is required. This should allow those posts that really can be answered in one line to be gruped together and not overrun those posts that require a bit more thought and testing. These more complex posts could be given thier own area where the development community could reply. Loren The great thing about beating your head against the wall is that it feels SO GOOD when you stop!
orchard Posted June 15, 2003 Posted June 15, 2003 How many of us ever read unanswered posts on Pages 2 or 3 ?Probably not many because the link has been broken for quite a while and you have to know how to hack the URL. In olden times the men were made of iron and the ships were made of wood; now it's the other way around. :wink:
Jaguar Posted June 15, 2003 Author Posted June 15, 2003 Thank you for helping to make my point! On any given day the posts consume several pages. I made a couple of posts early this morning and already they have been lost to page two. A lot of good questions are being unanswered and it is drving developers away from the one thing that matters besides the COOL factor and that is the support. So what I propose is that the forums have two sections , a section for psots that can be answered very quickly and a section that may require some though and community involvement. Any moderators out there care to comment - or this post going to prove my point. I have also placed a number of posts early this morning to test my ideas... we'll see how they do over the next few hours :wink: Loren The great thing about beating your head against the wall is that it feels SO GOOD when you stop!
loxly Posted June 16, 2003 Posted June 16, 2003 I have also placed a number of posts early this morning to test my ideas... we'll see how they do over the next few hours :wink: MY OPINION: If you made posts just to see if you would get answers you are part of the problem and not part of the solution. If you made posts because you needed answers, fine. [no external urls in signatures please, kthanks]
Jaguar Posted June 16, 2003 Author Posted June 16, 2003 Good Point! :!: Loxly ! The posts I made are legitimate problems that I and my team are having when trying to use OSC to solve our clients problems. However based on the fact that there has either been no valid and/or invalid response to several of them and they are now on page two of the posts, my hopes for getting real answers are drastically diminishing every hour. I posted a reprashed version last week and the response I got was "It can be done" well that just nice and peachy, would you mind telling me how "it can be done" . I even sent a direct email to the poster and have yet to receive a email, even one telling me to go away. :? These are the types of reposnes that look like sombody is actually taking the time but in reality it is vapor-answers. Kinda like cotton-candy - alot of sweet but no substance. I posted another question (see below link) last night and the response was "I have not done such a thing but I would imagine that it should be fairly easy to do it." other than feedback which I did ask for, the response provides no real value to affect a solution to my problem. http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/viewtopic.php...p=182679#182679 ://http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/viewto...79#182679 Loren The great thing about beating your head against the wall is that it feels SO GOOD when you stop!
orchard Posted June 16, 2003 Posted June 16, 2003 I think your expectation for an answer should depend on how mainstream your question is. For example I was disappointed when I had questions about SSL problems with my hosting company and questions like why are all the products always listed in new products and got no answers. On the other hand when I wanted to figure out how to put a link on my product info page to do a custom search for products that I considered similar, I didn't even post and figured I was on my own to figure that one out because it's not of general interest. I looked at your classified ad post and I would guess you got no answers because nobody in the forums has done anything like that with osCommerce. I think it could be done, but not in minutes so I wouldn't expect anyone to figure it out and tell you how to do it. I think if someone had already done something similar they would probably be glad to point you in the right direction. In olden times the men were made of iron and the ships were made of wood; now it's the other way around. :wink:
burt Posted June 16, 2003 Posted June 16, 2003 It is also worth considering that no-one gets paid to answer support/technical questions. So if you post here, you should expect a zero response. If you do get the answer you are looking for it is a bonus. If you don't, well, that's life.
Guest Posted June 16, 2003 Posted June 16, 2003 It seems that many of the easily answered and often asked questions should be added to the FAQs. Questioners should be referred there first. Sadly the FAQs section has remained static for some months (or longer). I'll do it - but not until I retire. (OSC will be in the museum tehn (with me)).
Guest Posted June 16, 2003 Posted June 16, 2003 It seems that many of the easily answered and often asked questions should be added to the FAQs. Questioners should be referred there first. Sadly the FAQs section has remained static for some months (or longer). I'll do it - but not until I retire. (OSC will be in the museum tehn (with me)). Paul, Like everything else the DevTeam has to have the time to do it. At this moment they are working furiously on the MS2 release. However, there are some answers to the most frequently asked questions in the wiki section of the forum. Feel free to write and occasional FAQ and contribute it yourself. We'd all appreciate it. :)
Guest Posted June 16, 2003 Posted June 16, 2003 Good Point! :!: Loxly ! The posts I made are legitimate problems that I and my team are having when trying to use OSC to solve our clients problems. However based on the fact that there has either been no valid and/or invalid response to several of them and they are now on page two of the posts, my hopes for getting real answers are drastically diminishing every hour. I posted a reprashed version last week and the response I got was "It can be done" well that just nice and peachy, would you mind telling me how "it can be done" . I even sent a direct email to the poster and have yet to receive a email, even one telling me to go away. :? These are the types of reposnes that look like sombody is actually taking the time but in reality it is vapor-answers. Kinda like cotton-candy - alot of sweet but no substance. I posted another question (see below link) last night and the response was "I have not done such a thing but I would imagine that it should be fairly easy to do it." other than feedback which I did ask for, the response provides no real value to affect a solution to my problem. http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/viewtopic.php...p=182679#182679 ://http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/viewto...79#182679 Loren, I have read a couple of your questions and IMHO, the reason you are not getting answered is you are asking for how to's on things that CAN be done but, that probably haven't been attempted yet. I would suggest that you find a competent php programmer and hire them to write the custom solutions that you are looking for.
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